Robertson crushes O’Sullivan

Neil Robertson continued his scintillating form at the Dafabet Masters by sweeping aside defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in emphatic fashion in Saturday’s opening semi-final at Alexandra Palace.

Robertson, who produced what he described as one of the best performances of his career in beating Ali Carter 6-1 in the previous round, recorded the same scoreline as O’Sullivan suffered his first semi-final defeat in the competition after 10 successive wins.

O’Sullivan, looking for his sixth triumph in the event, soon found himself in trouble as Robertson took the opening frame with a 100 break before the Australian snatched the second after O’Sullivan missed a frame-ball black.

That became 3-0 before O’Sullivan finally showed what he was capable of with a 101 break in the fourth frame – the highest clearance of the match and the 777th century of the Englishman’s record-breaking career.

However, Robertson responded with a 58 break in the next to go 4-1 up and there was no way back for an under-par O’Sullivan, with the world number one reeling off the final two frames to complete a 6-1 drubbing.

Robertson will now go in search of his second Masters victory and first title since the 2014 Wuxi Classic against either Mark Allen or Shaun Murphy, who meet later on Saturday.